How organizational culture affects projects

- Organizational culture is a set of shared values,beliefs, assumptions,habits, language,and other factors that guide people's behaviorsand decisions within an organization.All those factors of organizational cultureinfluence how projects are performedand their success.Let's talk about how organizational cultureaffects projects.

The organization's mission and visionshape the organization's culture.Projects that support the company missionare likely to get more attention and resources.When you're faced with a tricky decisionyou can use the mission to determinethe best thing to do.Leadership and authority are also a big partof organizational culture.If management defines clear goalsand then delegates responsibility to employees,that approach works equally well in your projects.

On the other hand,if authority isn't handed out often,you need to work with managementto get things doneand build their trust in you at the same time.Another aspect of culture is the organization'swork environment.For example, with a positive environment,people are motivated to get things done.And gathering lessons learned is easybecause employees are used to providinginput and striving to improve.On the other hand,in a negative environment,you're probably going to have to spenda lot of time managing your team.

Some cultures believe in following the rulesno matter what.Other cultures nurture innovation,expecting employees to try new approaches,question what's been done before,and come up with better methods.You don't have to follow the rulesin a rules-based culture,but if you're thinking about breaking rulesit's important to know which onesyou can break.And also think about what you'll doif your non-standard approach doesn't work.

Does your organization put results ahead of procedures?Or vice versa?That is,is it better to follow the ruleseven if you don't achieve the objective?Or can you do whatever it takesas long as you deliver the desired results?A project's goal is always to achieve its objectives.However, it's important to know where the boundaries arein making things happen.

Change management can be affectedby the organization's culture.If the organization is risk averse,the change management process might includemultiple rounds of review and require approvalfrom several people.On the other hand,if change is viewed simply aslife in the project management world,the change management processis probably a lot simpler.In projects with people working in locationsaround the country or the world,you also need to consider the culturesof your team members.

People may react differently to situationsor communicate differently based on the normsof their cultures.For example,in some cultures people are taught not to show weakness,which could be interpreted as arroganceby other cultures.Culture has a strong influence on how things happenwithin projects and how decisions are made.To increase the probability of project success,you need to manage your projectswith respect for what the culture considers important.

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7/10/2016

Project management is a start-to-finish approach to getting things done and making projects more successful. It's a profession, but it's also a set of techniques that anyone can apply to achieve goals and manage project work more effectively. Project management can be used to guide small, simple projects as well as complex enterprise-wide initiatives.

Bonnie Biafore has always been fascinated by how things work and how to make things work better. In this course, she explains the fundamentals of project management, from defining the problem, establishing project goals and objectives, and building a project plan to managing team resources, meeting deadlines, and closing the project. Along the way, she provides tips for reporting on project performance, keeping a project on track, and gaining customer acceptance.